This article is not for the general population. If you are a developer interested in comparing Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7 on the same machine read on, if not... the same, a little more information won't hurt, trust me.

Microsoft has finalized the work on an Internet Explorer 6 Virtual PC. As yet, the Redmond Company has failed to reveal an official release date but I promise to keep you up to date. Microsoft did put up briefly a 290 MB WinXP SP2 IE6 VPC Image, over 1 GB when extracted, but then removed it. It contained Windows XP SP2 with IE6, the latest production release of the VM Additions (13.552) and the IE7 Readiness Toolkit.

"Use this toolkit to evaluate what's new in Internet Explorer 7 and find information and tools to help you test the compatibility of your sites, extensions, and applications with Internet Explorer 7. Microsoft is eager to give you a head start and ensure that the transition to Internet Explorer 7 is seamless for you and your audience," was Microsoft's description of the product.

"The image is done, we're just working through some time bombing issues right now. We can't ship an untime bombed image, as that would be effectively shipping a full fledged OS. The image has been submitted, and it's being worked through right now," revealed an IE Product Manager with the Developer Division.

Running IE6 on a Windows XP installed in a Virtual PC while running IE7 on the main machine is a time consuming task. Here is where the pre-built IE6 VPC Image comes in, just download and run it. "The image will be patched and up to date (as of the date we release it, and we'll update it fairly often). The favorites will be filled in for you with several links to web resources, including the IE Blog, and a few other interesting places," added the IE Product Manager.

Microsoft has decided to restrict the usability of the IE6 VPC to only 120 days, due to license issues. After 120 days, the product will expire and you will need to download it again to continue testing. The image is 550 to 600 MB and it reaches 1.5 GB after extraction.